<p>OP…your son’s stats are a bit low but not out of range for Carnegie Mellon, particularly if he wants music as his first major. If he does well on the APs and brings up the ACT and writes a compelling essay for why he likes both fields he may have a good chance. FA is not great but if a student gets competing offers from similar schools (RPI, cornell) or a music school he may find that they will try hard to meet need. Do not apply ED if financial aid is important to you. </p>
<p>My son is in fine arts and is minoring in robotics (an engineering minor). It is very tough but doable. He is taking a CC summer course now to fufill some requirements and CMU, surprisinly, was just fine with him taking a CC online course. They work hard to help kids do these very diverse majors and minors. There is a whole program for double majors to help them get done in 4 years even when the majors are as far apart as engineering and music. There are alot of sound engineers who are also composers or play an instrument… </p>
<p>He has friends doing math and music. It is perfectly possible to do both music and engineering but your S may not get accepted straight into engineering. He should apply to the schoo of engineering, HSS (for math), and the music school (will need to send audition tape or visit). If he gets into two or more, he can apply for the double major program. If he only gets into one he can add the major or minor if he does OK in the first set of prerequisite classes. My son was waitlisted in engineering and computer science and chose to do the minor with the fine arts degree. Certainly your son would be able to do enough engineering core classes and math to make going on to engineering grad school a possibility. My brother was an English major at LAC and took a semester of extra classes to then go to engineering grad school.</p>
<p>CMU loves, loves, loves multidisciplinary kids. This is hte place that forces comp science majors to do a minor outside of comp science and really pushes them to do a humanity/music/etc. minor or major. </p>
<p>CMU is also very keen to increase minority and women stats in the sciences/math/engineering and works to make sure that these students are successful in such a white/asian/male dominated environment. My son is bicultural (hispanic/white) and rooms with a biracial (AA/white) kid. Both of them wanted to go to a school like their very diverse high school and CMU definitely fit the bill. I am impressed by the cultural/social/ethnic diversity and how welcoming the school is and supportive of students who may feel like they are odd-ducks in which ever field they are trying to break into.</p>